Fairest of All
by spiritofthevoid
Summary: For Marigold Potter-Lupin, the most important thing in her life is her family. So when Marigold has to leave the warmth of her home in order to learn magic, she has a hard time adjusting to her new environment. But when Marigold's enemies start coming after her, she quickly realizes that she can't survive on her own. With the help of her friends Marigold just might survive.
1. Chapter 1: And I Say, It's All Right

Marigold was not looking forward to attending Hogwarts. Though her family had done all they could to make the morning a good one, preparing cheese blintzes, fruit salad, and honey-sweetened chai masala for breakfast, let her watch her favorite show, and even taught her a charm that created a short but dazzling display of lights, Marigold remained in a sour mood from the time she woke up. Attending Hogwarts meant that she wouldn't be able to see her family first thing when she woke up, joining them for her daily prayers and sharing her dreams with them. It meant no more goodnight kisses and stories from her grandma and papa each day, no more weekly Shabbat feasts, no more hugs from her family and friends. And most importantly, it meant she was one step closer to the world that actively hated people like her papa, and even people like herself.

"I promise it won't be so bad," her papa had told her whenever she expressed her doubts about attending the school. "In fact, I made my closest friends at Hogwarts."

At this, part of Marigold felt the urge to ask, "But where are they now?" But she never dared to ask such a cruel question, even though there was a great truth to its implications. Her papa had suffered enough to last him many lifetimes, and she would not allow herself to willing add to his suffering. He had been right, after all – if her papa hadn't been best friends with her parents, then he never would have been able to raise her in the first place. And besides, the main reason she was even willing to go to Hogwarts for her papa.

Marigold's mood only improved once she was reunited with her best friend, Neville Longbottom, on Platform 9 ¾. Since they went school shopping together on her birthday, as they had celebrated both of their birthdays the day before, she had only gotten to see him a couple of times, as both of their families were too busy prepping them for school. While she was joined by her papa, grandpa, grandma, and Aunt Eliza, Neville was joined by his grandmother, aunts, uncles, and cousins, all of whom were much more excited to send Neville off than Neville was to be leaving. As for her blond friend, he was shaking so much that she was afraid he would faint.

When the Longbottoms spotted Marigold and her family, their excitement only grew more. Even Neville managed to calm down considerably from her presence alone, though once she was close enough, he rushed over and wrapped her in a hug. From behind them, Marigold could hear her aunt and some of Neville's family members cooing.

"I'm so happy to see you, Mari! I was worried you were gonna change your mind," Neville said, as a bit of pink tinged his usually cream-colored face. In return, Marigold offered him a soft smile as she pointed at the bracelet hanging around his left wrist. The red, orange, yellow and pink colored bracelet was identical to one she wore on her right wrist, with the exception of a flower charm on his. On her own was a charm of a smiling toad's head.

"I would never abandon you, Nev. Don't these mean anything to you?" she asked, winking before her friend could become even more flustered. From behind her, she thought she heard one of Neville's uncles commenting on what a good friend Neville had in "the Girl-Who-Lived." Marigold did her best not to flinch at the name, but it was hard not to whenever someone started fawning over her for something that had such drastic outcomes for both her and her papa. Instead, knowing that people would come flocking over to her upon discovering that the Girl-Who-Lived was amongst their midst, she let out a sigh. "We should probably try to find a spot soon. Papa said the train can get crowded pretty quickly."

After Neville nodded his consent, the pair turned around to exchange final goodbyes with their respective families. Turning toward her family, Marigold toward her grandpa first, who immediately stooped down to give her a hug. "I expect that you'll be better behaved than Remus was, ey Bubbeleh?"

"Of course, Zayde!" Marigold said, chuckling as she pulled away. Moving toward her grandmother, who stood out in her white sari, Marigold quickly bowed down, touched her grandmother's foot with her right hand, and raised her hand to her eyes. After standing upright, her grandmother cupped her face with her hands. Through blurry eyes, she could see that her grandmother was also starting to cry.

"Apna khayal rakhna, Ashi. Please remember to eat while you're gone," her grandmother said, kissing her on the temple before she gave her a quick hug. For a moment, Marigold was unable to speak, as her voice had tightened up too much. Only after taking a deep breath was she able to respond to her grandmother.

"Yes, Dadiji. I'll miss you," Marigold said, wiping the tears forming in her eyes.

"Don't get into too much trouble, kiddo. Got that?" her aunt asked, with a hint of a smile forming on her otherwise stern face. Unlike the rest of her family, Aunt Eliza preferred not to show too much emotion – with her short hair, many piercings, and leather jackets, she always presented herself as being cool under any circumstance. Marigold grinned in response, causing her aunt to shake her head.

"Of course, Vibhi Bua," Marigold said. As she chuckled, her aunt chuckled as well, muttering something about Marigold's birth father. Rushing forward, the girl wrapped her aunt in a tight hug. "I'm going to miss you."

"Me too, Ashi," her aunt said, her voice softer than before. She quickly pat Marigold on the back before releasing her.

Though it was difficult for Marigold to exchange her goodbyes with the rest of her family, it was with her papa that she had the most difficulty. Unable to say anything at first, she simply ran into him, her arms squeezing tightly around him. She quickly discovered how hard it was for him to say goodbye as well, when he hugged her back just as tightly. When they finally let go, Marigold was nowhere near ready to say goodbye. For a moment, all she could do was stare into his eyes as she fought back her tears.

"You'll be okay, lamb. We'll always be there for you if you need us, even if we can't be with you in person. And I promise that I'll write to you every day, even when I'm ill," he said.

"You promise, Papa?" Marigold asked, her emerald eyes sparkling. Her papa smiled, causing her to smile as well.

"Of course, lamb. Now let's get you on that train before it leaves you behind. Besides, you'll see us real soon for Rosh Hashanah." Marigold nodded, and she and her papa began pushing her cart toward the Hogwarts Express. Once they had managed to get the cart of the train, her papa bent down to give her one last hug. "I love you, Marigold."

"I love you too, Papa."

As Neville came up to join her, Marigold waved to her family before turning around to begin her search for a compartment. The first several rooms were either already full or contained quite a few of the older students, so Marigold and Neville pushed toward the back of the train; neither child was up for much socializing, especially with students much bigger than them. After checking a few more compartments, they finally came across one with just one person inside whom they both knew – a fair-skinned girl with auburn plaited hair named Susan Bones. When she greeted the pair with a smile, they took that as their cue to join them.

"It's been a while since I've seen either of you – how are you two?" she asked as she gently stroked the black cat on her lap. Marigold eyed the cat carefully as she took her seat across from Susan.

"I'm really nervous. What if they decide that I'm not good enough and send me back?"

"I'm sure they won't do that," Susan said offering him a comforting smile. From beside her, Marigold could feel Neville shaking. When she suddenly felt a tingling sensation as well, she moved closer to him, wrapping her right arm around his shoulders and resting her head against his. The tingling sensation started to die down, and Marigold let out a sigh.

"Susan's right, Nev, they wouldn't kick you out. But if they did, then I'd leave with you and we'd get Papa to teach us magic," Marigold said. Once Neville had calmed down, the trio resumed their conversation. Marigold caught Susan up with what her family had been doing, and Susan talked about the different families her aunt had been introducing to her in the hopes of her gaining a few new acquaintances before school started.

"They're mostly kids related to ministry workers, like the Weasleys and Cedric Diggory, who's actually pretty nice. I'm not sure how I feel about Draco Malfoy, though. He's pretty arrogant, but I think it has more to do with how he was raised than anything else. Still, there's something about him that says we should be careful around him," Susan explained.

"Noted," Marigold and Neville said in unison.

Moments later, a girl with dark brown skin and frizzy brown hair opened the door to their compartment. "Do you mind if I sit here? The other compartments so far were full and I don't want to keep dragging my stuff around."

"You're more than welcome to join us," Susan said, standing up to help the girl with her supplies. Marigold and Neville also got up and began placing the girl's belongings in the overhead bins. After they had finished, Susan stuck out her hand and smiled at the girl. "My name's Susan Bones, by the way. What's yours?"

"Hermione Granger," the girl replied, carefully shaking Susan's hand before turning to Neville and Marigold. "And you two are?"

"Neville Longbottom."

"Marigold," Marigold said, omitting her last name. Almost immediately, Hermione's eyes shifted to her temple, and Marigold had been very glad that her papa had cast a glamour charm to hide her scar.

"Is Marigold a common name in the wizarding community? I didn't think there would be someone else with the name of the Girl-Who-Lived in our year," Hermione said.

"Actually, Marigold is-" Susan started, but Marigold cut her off before she could finish.

"The Girl-Who-Lived doesn't have a monopoly on the name Marigold," Marigold said carefully, trying not to let her anger bubble out to the surface. She knew how big of the deal she was to other mages, but she never thought that she would be overshadowed by her own self so easily.

Sensing what she had done, Hermione frowned apologetically. "Sorry, I didn't mean to upset you. I'm sure you get a lot of unwarranted comparisons to her. I'm actually rather new to all of this, being a muggle-born and all."

"It's okay," Marigold said, "But let's talk about something else."

"Of course. What house do you think you'll be sorted in? From what I've read, Gryffindor seems the superior choice," Hermione said. Almost immediately, the other three children frowned at her. "Is that wrong too?"

"My aunt said that there is no superior house. Each house has its pros and con; while Gryffindor might turn out a lot of heroes, it's also turned out some of the worst villains in wizard history in the form of Morgan le Fay and…" Susan looked carefully over at Marigold, who knew exactly which wizard she was fixing to mention, "Sirius Black."

Hermione gasped as Neville put his own arm around Marigold. The people close to Marigold were always careful not to mention Sirius Black, knowing how much pain he had caused her family. For a moment, everyone in the compartment was silent, but after Marigold nodded her head to an apprehensive-looking Susan, her friend continued.

"Plus, each house has been pretty heavily stereotyped. Slytherin always gets a bad rep because of some of its most notorious members, but people often forget that the great wizard Merlin was also in Slytherin. Ravenclaw isn't full of people who only value wisdom; when it comes to accepting muggle-born mages in wizarding society, they've made even more ground than Hufflepuffs due to having a more active role in politics. And people always mention how Hufflepuff is made up of a bunch of duffers, but Newt Scamander, one of the most well-known wizards of this century, was in Hufflepuff," Susan said. At the mention of Newt Scamander, Marigold groaned – the creation of the Werewolf Registry had only made life harder for her papa.

"I hadn't thought about all of that," Hermione said with a look of awe etched on her face. For the rest of the ride, four kids talked about what they were most looking forward to at Hogwarts. To Hermione's disappointment, Marigold had mentioned flying a broom, but that was only because Marigold hadn't wanted to admit that she wasn't really looking forward to attending Hogwarts at all. They all exchanged the different things that they had heard, or Hermione's case, read about, compiling their knowledge to get a more accurate idea of what their time would be like. None of them were quite sure how the sorting process would work, though Marigold quickly dispelled the notion that they would have to know magic for it.

A couple of hours into the trip, Marigold and Neville decided to bring out their own pets, as Marigold had heard her snake, Selene, hissing about how lonely she was, and Neville had wanted to check on Neville. At the sight of Marigold's white ball python, Hermione jumped in her seat. "I thought we were only allowed to bring a cat, owl, or toad!"

"The letter said that we could only bring one of those animals; it never said we couldn't bring something else," Marigold pointed out, as Selene began climbing up her arms. "Besides, Selene does a lot less damage than a cat or an owl, and she's my familiar."

"_Your hair smells nice_, _Flower-girl_" Selene hissed in Marigold's ear. Marigold smiled at her familiar's nickname for her, "_You're very warm today. It feels nice_."

"Can you understand her?" Hermione asked, looking skeptically at Marigold. Neville and Susan looked worryingly at her as well, fully aware of the fact that she was a Parselmouth.

"I know how she feels," Marigold said, partially admitting the truth, "just like any other mage knows how their familiar feels."

"So you two know how your familiars feel too?" Hermione asked Susan and Neville, who each nodded in turn. With one more look at Marigold, Hermione finally relaxed a bit. When Marigold offered to let Hermione hold Selene, the muggle-born witch hesitantly accepted, but soon found that she rather enjoyed how Selene felt against her skin. But while Selene and Susan's cat, Nyx, seemed to be enjoying themselves, Marigold and Neville were both aware of how frantic Trevor was going.

"He doesn't like being so cooped up," Marigold sighed as she watched the toad from within his tank. "Maybe you should take him out."

"But what if I lose him?" Neville asked, his eyebrows notching up.

"Then we'll find him. It'll be okay," Marigold said. With a nod, Neville took Trevor out, who immediately began hoping around the compartment. Unfortunately for them, a boy with platinum blond hair and pale skin and two rather large first years decide to come into their compartment moments later, allowing Trevor with a quick an easy escape. Marigold and Neville stood up, but the large boys blocked the door, trapping them inside. With a frown, Marigold and Neville sat back down.

"Hello, Bones. I'd hope we'd see each other again," the boy said, his voice rather flat. With a nod to each boy, he said, "This is Crabbe and Goyle. I'm sure you've heard of them."

"Yes, I have Malfoy. It's a pleasure to see you again, and a pleasure to meet you…" Susan paused, prompting the boys to fully introduce themselves.

"Gregory Goyle, Heir to the Noble and Ancient House of Goyle," the taller of the two said.

"Vincent Crabbe, Heir to the Noble and Ancient House of Crabbe," the shorter boy said. At their introductions, Hermione's brown eyes had widened in shock, Neville had pressed in closer to Marigold, and Marigold rolled her eyes. Only Susan maintained a positive expression on her face.

"I think it goes without saying that I'm Draco Malfoy, Heir to the Noble and Most Ancient House of Malfoy, though I can't expect that everyone would know that, I suppose." Carefully scanning the room, Draco gave a curt nod to Neville while looking critically at Marigold and Hermione. "Longbottom, we've met before, but I don't think I've seen either of you before…"

"I'm Hermione Granger," Hermione said, carefully offering her hand. Draco stared at her, and then her hand. From the way his head tilted, Marigold could tell that he had no desire to shake Hermione's hand, but after a moment, he took her hand.

"Granger… I definitely haven't heard of you before," Draco said. The tone of his voice indicated that he was less than thrilled to be making her acquaintance. If Marigold hadn't been raised against it, she probably would have shouted at Draco. But before she could say anything, he was standing in front of her, carefully studying her eyes. Despite her discomfort, Marigold kept her eyes on his as well. "And you are?"

"Marigold," she replied, carefully omitting her last name. But it didn't seem to make a difference, as his eyes immediately went to her forehead. Within seconds, his wand was out. In a mixture of anger and shock, Marigold's eyes widened as she asked, "What are you doing?"

"Revelio!" Draco shouted. Despite her attempt to cover her forehead, the spell had worked, removing the glamour that her papa had cast. The lightning bolt scar that had been carefully concealed now stood out as thin white lines dancing across her otherwise brown face. The other girls in the compartment were both shocked and appalled by Draco's use of the spell, while Neville glaring at Draco. Marigold, on the other hand, was purely stunned, unable to breathe for a moment. "I suspected as much. So you're Marigold Potter, the Girl-Who-Lived."

Upon hearing her name, Marigold managed to snap out of her stupor. "Actually, it's Potter-Lupin, and you had no right to do that."

"So what? I was doing you a favor by removing that spell - if I were you, I would want everyone to know who I was immediately. Anyone would be eager to get on your good side, and you could easily make a lot of powerful allies."

"Powerful allies… like you? Well, Malfoy, I honestly don't know what to say to such an offer…" Marigold said, maintaining eye contact with the blond despite Neville's frantic head shaking. As much as she wanted to tell him to get lost, she knew better than to pick a fight before she even knew her enemy. Besides, why should she fight him when she could get something out of him instead? "I'll tell you what – I'll consider your offer… if you help me find Neville's toad!"

For a moment, Draco stared incredulously at her, but Marigold's expression remained solid. With a sigh, he nodded, and the pair began searching the train for Trevor. Marigold knew she didn't really need his help, as she had grown familiar with Trevor's energy, and she knew that it was unlikely that many other students had toads. But having Draco scour the train for the toad he inadvertently set loose was a least a minor form of payback that she would allow herself to have. And, as it turned out, he was rather good at getting people to respond to him, even though his mannerisms were quite terrible. Marigold considered Susan's description of him, and wondered if he might improve during his time at Hogwarts.

After searching through all the compartments Trevor had been through, the pair finally found him in a compartment full of students who were a couple of years older than them. To her surprise, the toad was not hoping around frantically, but seemed to be transfixed by bubbles shaped like different animals.

"Trevor!" Marigold shouted as she unceremoniously dove over the lap of the boy sitting closest to the toad. As she crashed through the bubbles, a cacophony of roars, caws, hisses, and grunts erupted in the room. Quickly scooping Trevor up with both hands, she looked apologetically at the boy whose lap she fell into once she was standing again. With a quick bow of her head, she said, "I'm so sorry for behaving so disgracefully."

"Oh, don't trouble yourself with that, we've done plenty of…" Before the redhead could finish, he was suddenly staring at her. "Well, look who we have here. If it isn't Marigold Potter in the flesh."

Marigold frowned. Even though she knew that was how most people knew her, it still made her uncomfortable each time someone omitted her papa's last name from her own. "It's actually Potter-Lupin."

"Potter-Lupin? Well, Miss Potter-Lupin, it's a been a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I'm Fred Weasley, and this here is my lesser half, George," the boy said, pointing to himself and his identical twin.

"He means his superior half; he always gets those words mixed up," George said, waving at Marigold.

"Ignore them," a boy with dreadlocks said casually. "They're always like that. I'm Lee Jordan, by the way."

"Oh don't act like you aren't involved with most of their antics, Lee," a girl with fair skin and blonde hair said, shaking her head playfully before turning toward Marigold. "Anyway, it's nice to meet you! I'm Beatrice Haywood and these two are Heidi Macavoy and Cedric Diggory."

While the tan-skinned, curly-haired girl offered her a dazzling smile, the boy with chestnut-colored hair scanned her carefully. Unlike with most people, however, his gaze was not appraising, and she quickly discovered why he had been looking at her when he casted a quiet, "Tergeo!"

As the liquid from the bubbles left her shirt, Marigold smiled at him. "Thank you!"

"It was nothing. We should probably let you two get back to your own compartment – we're almost there, and everyone's expected to change before the train stops."

Marigold nodded as Draco, who had been oddly silent during the exchange, took that as his cue to drag her away. She frowned at the unwanted skin contact, but didn't protest as they moved to where their group had been waiting for them. The scene was not one of peace, however, as the duo quickly discovered. While Gregory was carefully holding onto Nyx, who was desperately trying to claw her way out of his arms, Neville was hunched over Selene's tank, where she had twisted herself into a ball. The claw marks on the seat suggested that there had been more difficultly trying to calm down Nyx than the trouble she was giving Gregory.

Moments after she was in the room, however, Nyx began to calm down, and Gregory finally released the cat. Susan looked up at her, astonished, while Neville merely muttered, "Of course!" Hermione, Vincent, Gregory, and Draco, however, all looked at Marigold with confused expressions. Ignoring their looks, Marigold stepped in front of Neville holding out her hand to him. "Look at who I found!"

"Trevor!" he cried, carefully holding his hands up. The toad immediately hoped onto his owner's hands, and Marigold carefully grabbed Selene's tank from Neville's lap. She was still in her ball, but she stuck her head out a little to hiss at Marigold.

"_Please don't leave me alone with that demon again. She would have killed me if not for that boy_." Afraid to respond back, Marigold merely nodded her head before turning to Gregory.

"I don't know what happened, but I suspect that if it wasn't for you, my snake would be dead. So, thank you, Goyle" Marigold said, smiling at the boy for the first time.

"It was nothing," he replied, waving his arm as if to brush off the incident. It was then that she noticed the gashes on his arm.

"No, it wasn't – you got hurt. I might be able to help you, though." Marigold closed her eyes, trying to remember the simple healing spell. Her papa hadn't taught her a lot of spells before she had left out of fear of getting her in trouble, but he had insisted that she learned some of the more practical spells. Once she had remembered the spell, her eyes flew open as she took out her wand and said, "Episkey!"

It wasn't a perfect job, as it had only managed to form scabs, but at the very least she had managed to close the wounds. After he grunted out a quick thanks, she turned to face Malfoy.

"And I should thank you as well, Malfoy. You were actually quite a bit of help with Trevor," Marigold said. Though she had only just met him, she was unsurprised when he smirked in response.

"Of course I was. So, does this mean that you'll take me up on my offer?" he asked, much to the annoyance of Neville and Hermione. Marigold didn't respond immediately, but simply smiled at him.

"Oh Malfoy, I only said I would think about it. Don't you think we should become better acquainted with each other before declaring anything? I'd hate to make a rash decision." Holding out her hand, she had to suppress the smirk that was starting to form on her own face. With a single statement, she had managed to stun everyone surrounding her. As the silence continued, however, she briefly worried that Draco would retaliate for her response – while she hadn't technically tricked him, as she did exactly what she said she would, she also knew that she had been rather misleading. But instead of getting angry, Draco merely shook her hand. It wasn't much, but better than the alternatives.

"Of course. Well, I'll see you around… Potter-Lupin." With a nod, to the other two boys, the trio was gone, leaving Marigold, Neville, Susan and Hermione to themselves at last.

"I'm surprised you didn't just tell him off after that stunt he pulled," Susan said after the door had closed. Hermione and Neville nodded their agreement.

"He was such a git!" Hermione added.

"I did think about telling him off, but I didn't think it would be fair to judge him based off of a single encounter," Marigold said. "And he might be a git, but even gits have their uses."

The crowd of first years surrounding Marigold were so anxious that Marigold was starting to feel uncomfortable herself. As the students started speculating on how the sorting would work, Marigold had a hard time making out what Professor McGonagall was saying. Only when the ghosts had appeared had the students managed to stop their frantic chattering.

As the first-years entered the Grand Hall, Marigold could hear Hermione describing how the ceiling had been enchanted to another student. She had been one of the few students who seemed relatively unfazed by their situation. While Marigold herself wasn't too concerned with the sorting, feeling the gazes of her peers did nothing to make her feel comfortable in the crowd. It was only when the hat in front of them began to sing that she knew that no one was looking at her any longer. So that was how they were sorted.

The first few sortings were fairly quick – while Marigold didn't know Hannah Abbot, from what she knew of Hufflepuff, she wasn't surprised that Susan had been sorted into that house. The first time the hat took more than a few seconds to shout out the names of the houses was with Hermione Granger. After about two minutes, Marigold heard someone muttering about a hat stall. A few more minutes had passed before the hat finally shouted out, "Ravenclaw!"

When it was Neville's turn to be sorted, Marigold quickly squeezed his hand before he went up. Like Hermione before him, his sorting also took longer than most. The longer the sorting went on, the more he began to frown. Marigold wasn't quite sure what was going through her best friend's mind, but she caught him looking toward her more than once while the hat was talking to him. As Neville took off the hat after it called out, "Gryffindor!" he looked noticeably paler.

As the sorting process continued, Marigold noted that the students seemed to be pretty evenly divided. It was so divided, in fact, that when the Patil twins had been sorted before her were placed in different houses, one of the kids behind her commented on how unexpected that was. Once a girl named Sally-Anne Perks had been sorted into Slytherin, the crowd grew quiet again when McGonagall called out, "Potter-Lupin, Marigold."

More than she had at any other point, Marigold could feel people staring as she walked up to the stool with the sorting hat. She was all too happy to place the hat on her head, if only because it obscured her vision of the crowd that was before her.

"_Another interesting case, I see. Oh yes. You've got quite the clever mind I see, and rather big goals. Perhaps Slytherin would be the best place for you_," a voice said in her mind. Within seconds, Marigold's face began scrunching up.

"_Do I have to be sorted? I don't really like how the sorting works_," she thought back. For a moment, she was left alone with her own thoughts, but then she felt something that she could describing as being a mental laugh. The feeling left Marigold's head aching for a few minutes after that.

"_It's been a while since someone's asked me that question, and every time it's been asked, that mage got quite a reputation for themselves. So, I'll ask you the same question I asked them- why don't you like how the sorting works_?"

"_Well, it's not really fair, is it? Separating kids before they even get a chance to know one another, and then being forced to compete against each other doesn't really give a way for people to make friends with each other if they aren't in the same house_." Even while her conversation with the hat was occurring, she could still hear some of the students talking. If they weren't talking about how the Girl-Who-Lived was sitting right in front of them, they were speculating which house she would get.

"_Well put. Looking deeper into your mind, I can tell that Slytherin would be a rather poor fit in the end. No, your values are much more aligned with a different founder. I think she would have rather liked to have you in her house. The other founders would think you enough, but it's clear that you'll be best in_ HUFFLEPUFF!"

Knowing that the last word had been shouted for all to hear, Marigold carefully took the hat off before stepping down to join one of the tables in the middle. For a moment, everyone in the hall was quiet, but quickly, several students clad in yellow and black robes began clapping and cheering as she joined their midst. Susan ran up to her and hugged her, while everyone welcomed her to their house. Still feeling uncomfortable with the attention, she could only smile and nod at everyone, though she relaxed slightly when she saw Beatrice and Cedric smiling at her. Still, she felt much better when the girl after her, Leanne Qian, had been sorted into Hufflepuff, and everyone began welcoming her into the house as well.

After the final student, Blaise Zabini, had been sorted into Slytherin, the headmaster, Dumbledore, quickly quieted the hall before giving the most bizarre speech that Marigold had ever heard. Looking over at Cedric, she arched an eyebrow to ask if he could explain what had just happened, but the older boy merely smiled and shrugged his shoulders.

Moments later, when food magically appeared in front of her, the speech was far from Marigold's mind. Before her was so much food that even her grandmother would be impressed. While most of it was more traditional British food, she didn't fail to notice the samosas, bhatura, and bowl of chana masala sitting near her. Happy to see some food that reminded her of home, she happily dug in, even though she knew that the food could never compare to her grandma's cooking.

After everyone had finished eating, two Hufflepuff prefects stood in up, asking everyone to follow them. The students all fell in line easily enough, and soon they made their way over to the kitchens before stopping in front of a pile of barrels situated right beside the kitchen. After instructing all of the new students on which barrel to tap and how many times to tap, they were all brought inside to the Hufflepuff Common room.

Waiting to greet them as they came inside was the Head of House, Professor Sprout, a plump woman with dark brown skin, curly gray hair, and the most welcoming smile. Marigold immediately felt at ease in her presence, and carefully listened as she explained what her expectations were for her students. After Professor Sprout had expressed how excited she was to get to know each one of her students personally, she left so that the prefects could show the new students to their rooms.

Including Marigold, there were five girls total in her room – Susan, Hannah, Leanne, and a girl with olive skin and freckles named Megan Jones. While the other four girls talked excitedly amongst themselves, Marigold began writing out a letter to her family that told of her adventure on the Hogwarts Express and which house she had been sorted into. Once she had finished her letter, Susan had tried to get her to join them, but Marigold shook her head. Instead, she took Selene out of her tank and went to go sit in the common room since Selene was still nervous to be around Nyx. While she was somewhat relieved to be sharing a room with someone else that she knew, she saw no reason for why she suddenly be social with all of her new roommates. For a long time, Neville and Susan had been her only friends, and she didn't see how that could change overnight.

"_This place is cozy_," Selene hissed as she moved along the room. Marigold was happy that her snake felt more comfortable, even though she felt worse with each passing moment. With a sigh, Marigold sat on one of the window ledges, looking up at the night sky. The moon was a quarter moon that evening, so it stood out amongst the stars.

"_It is nice, but I still miss home_," Marigold responded back, not checking to see if someone else had entered the common room. She was usually pretty good about sensing when another person was nearby, anyway, and she hadn't heard anybody else moving in the room. She had neglected to thoroughly check if the room had been cleared, however.

"_Flower-girl, please be careful. A human boy is in here_," Selene hissed in warning.

"_What?_" Marigold asked in confusion before turning around. Standing in front of her was Cedric Diggory. From the way his mouth was hanging open, she could tell he had heard speaking Parseltongue. Immediately, Marigold started pulling herself into a neat little ball as she felt chills go down her back. Outside of her family, only Neville and Susan were aware of the fact that she was a Parselmouth due to the trait being condemned by the wizarding community. And now, in a careless moment, her secret had been discovered on the first day of living at Hogwarts. If word got out, she was going to have an even harder time fitting in than she already would because of her fame.

As Marigold tried to think of some explanation, knowing that lies weren't going to help her, Cedric cleared his throat. In a quiet voice, he said, "I won't say anything if you don't want me to."

Relief washed over her immediately. Slowly unfurling, she finally looked up at the older Hufflepuff. "I would really appreciate that. I promise I'm not evil or anything, but that's not how most people would see it."

At that, Cedric nodded his head. "Misunderstandings happen pretty easily around here, unfortunately. People have a tendency to jump to the wrong conclusions."

"But you didn't," Marigold pointed out. Moments later, she felt Selene slithering up her leg and into her lap. When she saw that Selene was sitting in a defensive position, she quietly hissed, "_It's okay. He's on our side_."

"Well, I might not have been able to understand what you were saying, but you sounded sad." Cedric looked warily between Marigold and Selene as Selene slowly crouched down. "She's not going to attack me, right?"

"No, she's just really defensive; she had a pretty rough day."

"And you? People don't usually come in here on the first night, especially by themselves. Is everything okay?" At his question, Marigold stared at him. She was amazed at how observant and considerate he was. But his question also made her wonder why he was in the common room as well.

"Well, to be honest, I really miss my family right now, and I'm a bit uncomfortable being around people I don't know that well. I'm sure that my roommates are all really nice – I know Susan is – but I just needed some time by myself."

"Is that what you were talking about a minute ago? Missing home?" Cedric asked. Marigold nodded and Cedric placed a hand on her shoulder. "I used to be really homesick my first year as well; I actually came out here so I could write a letter to my parents. But don't worry - as you start making friends, you'll feel better."

"What if I'm not good at making friends?" Marigold asked. Even though she had friends in Neville and Susan, it had been a while since she had became friends with them. Having been so long out of the process of making friends, she began to worry that she was no longer able to make any new friends. If Cedric could sense her new worries, however, he didn't let on, as he began to chuckle.

"Well, you're already off to a pretty good start, since you started making at least one new friend today. You might be able to get started on making a couple more friends if you interact with your roommates. You might end up not getting along with them, but you'll never know either way if you don't try. And if it turns out that it's too much, then I won't judge you if you end up coming back in here; my own roommates are usually a bit too loud after break, anyway." Cedric carefully dropped his arm from her shoulder as he moved out of the way. As Marigold scooped up Selene before walking back to her room, she smiled up at Cedric.

"Thank you, Cedric."

When she first got back in her room, she was still somewhat uncomfortable. But she quickly found that she wasn't the only one out of her element, and that all of the girls were making an effort to get to know each other. Of course it was going to take more than a single night to really feel comfortable with each other, but Marigold soon found that she hadn't helped matters by leaving the room when the spotlight was put on her.

As the conversation came to a lull, an idea suddenly struck her. Pulling out the enchanted record player her papa had gotten her for eleventh birthday and her _Abbey Road_ record. Before placing the record on the player, she flipped the disc over so that the second side would play. The dorm room was a far cry from home, but as the first notes of "Here Comes the Sun" began playing, Marigold felt a little less homesick.

* * *

A/N:Thank you so much for making it to the end of that rather long first chapter. Before I get into specific notes for this chapter, I want to start with some general notes for this story.

First, I want to apologize for any and all mistakes I might have made or might make in the future. I'm handle the representation of different cultures in a respectful manner, but the truth is, I'll probably mess up a few times. If something comes off as being offensive or insensitive to you, please let me know, because I want to make sure that I'm being as respectful as possible (and I promise I won't mind no matter how small something might seem; if it matters to you, it's not insignificant). Please note, however, that the focus of this story is not on Marigold's heritage, but rather on her journey through the wizarding world with her family and friends. I will be integrating parts of her cultural identity into the story, but this is more to give the story a sense of realism as well as an attempt to better represent racial and religious diversity in (fan)fiction. Because, personally, as a POC, I'm quite tired of "diversity" (which is a rather loaded term) merely being attributed to different skin colors, and that's it.

Second, as you can see from this rather long chapter, this isn't going to be a one-to-one fanfic with each chapter representing a different chapter from the books. Why?  
A.) That's been done dozens, if not hundreds, of times  
B.) If I did that, I'd probably never update  
C.) This is going to end up being quite different from the series, so it really wouldn't make sense.  
Some chapters will be combined, while others might just be skipped altogether, depending on how well they fit into the changes I'm making for this story. I don't want this to be a carbon-copy of the series, but with more POC featured. For the most part, I plan to steer clear of direct quotes, and even similar sequences of events. I'm not going to be placing Neville in canon-Ron's shoes, nor will I be placing Susan or Padma in canon-Hermione's shoes. All of these characters are distinct from one another, and so the impact that they have will also be different.

Finally, if you are expecting shipping, you're going to have to wait a while. For the most part, I'll be focus on the platonic friendships between the characters, even once they are old enough to start getting into relationships. I just thought I should give y'all that warning.

Now for the chapter notes: the title comes from "Here Comes the Sun," by the Beatles. In this story, Euphemia Potter is alive, but her husband died because of dragon pox like in canon. Eliza (or Vibhi, as she will often be referred to as) is James' older sister, and currently has the title of Lady Potter. The Potter family is all of Indian descent, with Marigold being the first in this particular line to have any English blood within her (Lily was Ashkenazi and British, like the Lupin family is in this).

"Apna khayal rakhna" is supposed to mean take care of yourself - I didn't use Google Translate, but I did Google search, so I'm not sure how accurate this is.

Ashi and Vibhi are both nicknames - Ashi is supposed to mean always smiling, while Vibhi should mean fearless.

If you're curious, Rosh Hashanan started on the evening of September 8th in 1991, so that's why Remus brings it up in this chapter.

I think that covers everything I wanted to say... If you have questions or anything you'd like to say, please let me know in the comments. I hope you enjoyed the first chapter!


	2. Chapter 2: Everyday is Like Survival

Marigold's first day at Hogwarts was rather rough, but to her surprise, the first day of classes hadn't been too bad. Breakfast was a struggle to get through at first due to all of the stares she got from students in other houses, but her morning quickly brightened when she noticed her family's owl, Mercury, flying toward her with a letter and a small box of chocolates. The letter read:

_Dearest Mari,_

_I hope that you are doing well. We all miss you terribly at home, but we hope that you enjoy your time at school. I'm glad that you have Neville with you, and know that you will be able to make more friends in no time at all. _

_We're all eager to find out what house you are in. I'm sure that no matter where the sorting hat placed you, you will do well. Just remember not to let the house rivalry get to you too much - as great as your father was, I often felt that he was a bit too prejudiced against the other houses. _

_Write back as soon as you can, and enjoy your first week of classes. _

_With love, _

_Papa_

_P.S. Try your best to make the chocolates last. With Snape as your professor, there will definitely be days that you'll need it. Let me know when you run out, and we'll send you some more._

With a smile on her face, Mari carefully placed the letter and chocolates in her robes and made her way to class with the rest of the Hufflepuff first years. The first class of the day was Charms with the Slytherin students. For the most part, the Slytherins and Hufflepuffs kept to themselves, though she noticed that Goyle had deliberately taken the table across from her, smiling and waving at both her and Susan while taking a seat beside Blaise Zabini. Both she and Susan returned his greeting.

Before getting into the lesson, Flitwick had prepared a special demonstration with lights, which helped to set the atmosphere for the rest of the class period when he had begun teaching them all Lumos. Marigold had never tried the spell herself, as she would always use either a candle or flashlight when she needed additional light at night, but because she had learned a number of other spells from her papa before coming to Hogwarts, she had managed to create a rather bright light after a couple of attempts. Out of all of the students, Draco Malfoy had the most success, for his light was neither too bright, as Pansy Parkinson's had been, nor too dim, as Justin Finch-Fletchley's had been. By the end of the end of the class period, both houses even managed to gain some points for their houses, leaving everyone in a good mood.

Double transfiguration with the Ravenclaw students had also proven to be quite interesting. Though it had taken a while for the Hufflepuffs to find the classroom, they all managed to arrive on time. When McGonagall transformed from a cat into a woman, a few of her housemates had jumped in their seats. Even Marigold, who suspected that there was something amiss with the cat, was surprised by the transformation. But when McGonagall asked if anyone knew how she was capable of this particular act of transfiguration, her hand shot right up.

"Yes, Miss Potter-Lupin?"

"Is it because you are an animagus?" Marigold asked, remembering the tales that her papa had shared with her after he had told her about him being a werewolf. At her response, McGonagall offered her a small smile.

"Yes. Very good, Miss Potter-Lupin. As students typically do not learn about animagi until their third-year, I think I shall award… five points to Hufflepuff for showing initiative with their education," McGonagall said. As more points had been awarded to their house, the Hufflepuff students began cheering. Leanne, who was sitting next to Marigold, patted her on the back. "Might I ask how you became familiar with this particular term?"

Despite the question, there was a glint in McGonagall's eyes that suggested she was fully aware of why Marigold would know the answer. Of all of his Hogwarts professors, her papa expressed the most fondness for his former head of house, both for her fairness and for her clever mind.

"My papa used to tell me stories about people who were able to change into animals at will, and all of the fun these people used to have. When I was a little older, I wanted to know more about it." She could still picture that sad, nostalgic-tinged smile of his as he talked about his old friends. Even after everything that had happened because of Sirius Black's betrayal, her papa's ability to look back at all of his friends with fondness always stuck with her. If someone were ever to betray her in the future, she wasn't sure if she would be able to do the same.

"Ah. I can't say that I'm too surprised, given how curious Mr. Lupin's friends, including Mr. Potter, were in the subject," McGonagall said, a trace of a smile on her lips. Marigold wondered if Professor McGonagall happened to know the truth about their curiosity - how her papa's friends all went through the ritual to become animagi to accompany him during the full moon when he transformed. She suspected that her professor had at least thought of the possibility, though whether or not she believed it to be the truth was a different story. Clearing her throat, McGonagall continued, "But before one can even think about becoming an animagus, one must first master the basics. Before we can practice transfiguration on living objects, we will first begin by practicing on inanimate items. Now, if you will turn your attention to the matchsticks in front of you…"

Very few students had much success managing to turn the matchstick into metal, muchness a needle. Though Marigold faired better than Leanne, as she had managed to completely transfigure the material, the shape of the metal was still that of a matchstick. The only person who faired any better was Hermione, who had managed to give the transfigured matchstick a pointy end. McGonagall offered both girls actual smiles after showing off their work to the rest of the class.

Lunch had also been nice until the end, as she and Neville managed to catch up on what they had been up to so far. For the first half of the lunch break, they mainly talked to each other from their own tables, as they were beside each other, but when Marigold had noticed that some of the older-students were moving about, she decided that it would be okay for her to join him at the Gryffindor table. Only one of the students - Parvati, who had been sorted right before her - was sitting near him, and she was more engaged in a conversation with the girl beside her. It hadn't taken long for their conversation to get derailed, however, when Neville's housemates expressed a sudden interest in him once they noticed Marigold's presence. She hadn't been too pleased with that, especially when she saw how flustered her best friend was becoming from all of the sudden attention.

The only real disappointment of the day had been her Defense Against the Dark Arts class. While some of her housemates approached the class with a sense of apprehension, more seemed to be jumping in excitement. The other houses seemed even more excited, with Gryffindor students showing the most enthusiasm. The youngest Weasley boy seemed particularly buzzed, as he expressed to a rather anxious Neville. But all of that excitement that had been bubbling was quickly burst when Professor Quirrell opened his mouth.

The poor man could barely get more than a few words out before he began stuttering. As he held the parchment with the list of students in their class, Marigold noted how his hands never stopped shaking. When he finally got to her name, his face paled before he finally croaked out her name.

Marigold hoped that his nerves would ease as he broke into the lecture, but they only seemed to worsen as the class progressed. In the middle of class, she heard someone mutter how Quirrell made Neville seem competent, causing her to glare at the offending Gryffindor. But as it turned out, Neville was one of the few students who seemed to enjoy the class in any sort of capacity.

"You know, I thought that was going to be a lot worse, but we didn't even have to use magic in that class!" Neville said as they walked to the greenhouse for Herbology.

"I had a hard time understanding what he was trying to say," Marigold said, frowning.

"Maybe he was just nervous since it's his first day as the Defense professor. I'm sure that tomorrow will be better."

Quirrell's class was not better the next day, or any other day that week. Even the older Hufflepuff students had started complaining about how Quirrell paled in comparison to his predecessors.

"If only they would bring back Rakepick. Now she was a proper professor," Beatrice had said Tuesday during breakfast. "I pity all of the poor souls in fifth year that have to deal with Quirrell the year they have O.W.L.s"

"What are O. ?" Marigold asked.

"Something neither of us have to worry about right now," the fourth-year Hufflepuff said before laughing. Being the only first-year at the Hufflepuff, as the others were still sleeping from going to bed so late due to Astronomy the night before, Marigold had joined Cedric and his friends for breakfast. To her relief, they had all been welcoming, especially Beatrice and Heidi, the two girls who she met on the train. "I don't know what I'm going to do next year, though, with Quidditch, chorus, and this potion business my sister's roped me into. If I'm made prefect, I think I'll die."

"I doubt Sprout would let you be prefect," Cedric said, causing Beatrice to mock gasp. Taking her seriously, he held up his hands, adding, "I just think she wouldn't want to give anyone too much to handle."

"Oh, Cedric, you're always so nice. Can't you ever say a bad thing about anyone?" Beatrice asked in a mocking voice, rolling her eyes. Beatrice's comment got a laugh out of most of the group, though Marigold noticed that Cedric had looked slightly flushed.

By the time the first and second-year Hufflepuffs joined them at the table, Marigold had become so engrossed with the older students that she failed to notice their presence. It was only when she was starting to leave as most of the other students were filtering out of the Great Hall that she caught their attention.

"Marigold, I didn't even know you were here! Are you leaving already?" Susan asked as Marigold made her way past the other first-year Hufflepuff students.

"Oh, yeah, sorry. I woke up earlier, so I thought I would just come here with the others. I should probably feed Selene before class, anyway." Susan nodded, though Marigold noted the frown on her face. It was only the second day, but already Marigold seemed to be socializing less with the Hufflepuffs in her year than the others. She still hadn't even said anything to most of the boys in her their group, and she had only exchanged a couple of words with Megan and Hannah. "I'll see you in History with Nev?"

"Sure," Susan said.

With most of the students out of Hufflepuff section, Marigold let Selene out to roam around the common room again. While she had already taken notice of the warm fireplace, tables, chairs, couches, and floor cushions, it was only in the daylight that Marigold could fully appreciate the space. Above the fireplace was a beautiful mantlepiece with carvings of flowers and badgers and above that was a portrait of Helga Hufflepuff, beaming at anyone who glanced her way. On the wall were an assortment of portraits, drawings, and even embroidered hoops with messages like "Don't Worry, Bee Happy," and "Stay Positive!" written within them. Hanging from the ceiling near the windows were terrariums containing both magical and regular plants. There was even a bookcase full of used books, with quite a few of them being muggle books, that had been donated by various Hufflepuff students over the years. If she didn't have to feed Selene, she probably would have picked up a book and plopped down on one of the floor cushions.

The moment Marigold removed the lid from Selene's tank, the snake was already beginning to rise up so that she could easily climb up Marigold's arm. With no interference from other students or the professors, Marigold decided to use the opportunity to explore as much of the castle as they could. Being near the kitchens, it didn't take long for Selene to sniff out a mouse so that she could enjoy her own breakfast. After she had finished, the pair ventured outside, making their way down the hills.

Marigold had no intentions of entering the Forbidden Forest, but she had wanted to mark what was at the border of the school grounds. To her surprise, she found that she was quickly greeted by a great black boarhound. Selene crawled up her arm until she was resting across her shoulders, mostly hidden by her robes. The move had been smart on her familiar's part, as the boarhound jumped up to start liking Marigold's face.

"Fang, get down!" a gruff voice called out, but Marigold only had to start petting the dog for him to stop jumping up. In a matter of seconds, the dog had been pulled away from her, with the school's groundkeeper looking down at her, his face red from embarrassment. "I'm sorry about that, miss. I don't know what got in ter him."

"Oh, I didn't mind - animals tend to act… different when they're around me," Marigold replied, smiling. "Fang seems really nice."

"Oh he is, but he's usually pretty shy. I've never seen 'im jump like that 'round people he don't know. Then again, yer not just any ol' mage, Marigold," Hagrid said, smiling down at her. Marigold's face twisted in confusion as her body grew slightly stiffer, to Selene's annoyance.

"What do you mean by that, Sir?"

"Well, yer'r the Girl-Who-Lived, of course. And please, don't fuss 'bout calling me "Sir" - it's too stuffy fer me. Hagrid will do."

"I don't see why me being the Girl-Who-Lived would matter in this case, Hagrid," Marigold said, her face still knotted. All too often had she heard people tell her how great she was for something she had no control over. How people could actually believe that a one-year-old was capable of actually killing a man, especially one that dozens of highly trained mages had failed to even contain, was simply beyond her.

"What I mean is that yer a pretty powerful witch. It's not any ol' witch who can have a snake familiar, 'specially if they're a light one," Hagrid said, pointing to her shoulders, where Selene clung. "Some mages are able ter bond really well with animals and magical creatures. Perhaps I could tell yer more in the future, but I think you'd better head back to the castle now."

With a nod, Marigold made her way back to the castle with Selene. She wasn't quite sure how she felt about Hagrid, but Selene had't seemed to mind him.

"_Too many smells, but he had a good energy_," Selene hissed once they were far enough away. That was her usual way of judging new people she met - scent and energy. Marigold usually took her word for things, as Selene had proven herself to be a good judge of character and often warned her when she needed to be careful. If only she could carry her around wherever she went, Marigold's life would be so much easier.

Because of having to go back to her room to put Selene away before class, Marigold was one of the last students in the room, as students from all of the other houses were already seated. She searched for where Neville and Susan had been sitting , only to find them surrounded by Draco, Goyle, and Crabbe on one side and Hannah and Megan on the other side. After catching her eye, Goyle started scooting over to make room for her, but since the row was already full, Marigold shook her head before moving to take a seat at the back. Just before the bell rang, a girl in Ravenclaw came running through the door, taking a seat beside her.

For the first thirty minutes, Marigold tried her best to take notes on Professor Binns' lesson, but about forty minutes into the class, her head began to droop. Right as she closed her eyes, the girl gave her a nudge on the arm. Marigold jolted upright as her face warmed - not for the first time was she glad that her blushes were hard to detect.

"Thanks," Marigold whispered, trying to keep her attention on the ghost lecturing in front of them. Looking down at the crowd, she noticed that several other students looked as if they were about to nod off, or were otherwise distracted from the lecture. Few of the students were actually still actively paying attention and taking notes.

"No problem. My cousin warned me about how boring Binns' lectures were, so I came prepared," the girl replied, pointing down to her notebook. On the right page were neatly written notes pertaining to the class, but on the left page was a sketch of four people standing around what looked to be the Sorting Hat.

"That's a really cool drawing," Marigold said as she peered down to examine the figures in closer detail. Each one had been given some type of animalistic feature. The first had a tail and a wild mane of hair, the second, a snout for a nose and particularly round ears, the third had wings and talons, and the final figure had reptilian eyes with a forked tongue protruding from his mouth. It was a representation of the four founders of Hogwarts with their mascots, Marigold realized.

"Thanks. Usually, people tell me that they're too silly or unrealistic, so it's nice to hear that," the girl said with a smile that lit up her whole face. Gazing into her topaz eyes, Marigold almost missed her hand when it was offered. "I'm Padma Patil, by the way."

"Marigold Potter-Lupin." For the remaining fifty minutes, Marigold and Padma talked about what they typically enjoyed doing. By the end of the class, she was actually glad that she had gotten the chance to sit next to her, even if she had initially regretted not getting to sit with Neville and Susan. When they discovered they both had Potions together, they decided to partner up again.

If History of Magic had been a struggle to get through, however, Potions was even worse. As soon as Snape had called roll, he decided to drill Marigold with an impromptu pop quiz. She only got one of the three questions right, and that was because her aunt had given her a bezoar to take to school.

"That was harsh," Padma whispered once Snape's attention was away from their table. "But I'm really glad it wasn't me - I didn't know any of the answers!"

Snape didn't make the lesson any easier when he started stalking around the classroom as he lectured. By the end of the class, Marigold's hands were shaking so much that the last part of her notes was completely illegible.

"Sit with me at lunch, and you can copy down the rest of my notes," Padma said once the bell had rung. Marigold nodded before reaching into her pocket and taking out the piece of chocolate she had left in from the box her papa had sent the day before. If Snape was always going to be like that, she was in for a long year.

Although Snape's lessons hadn't improved since the first class, Marigold wasn't minding her time at Hogwarts too much. The first Friday, Hagrid had invited her to come over. She had invited Neville, Susan, and Padma to come along, but Susan had opted out in order to hang out with Hannah and Megan.

Once they were close enough to Hagrid's hut, Fangs came running toward them, nearly knocking Marigold down as he jumped up to lick her face again. Neville, who had been walking beside Marigold, placed a shaking hand on her back to help steady her.

"That has to be the biggest dog I've ever seen," Padma said from behind them.

"Down, Fangs!" Hagrid cried out, but once again, he refused to go down until Marigold started petting him.

Once inside, with Fangs firmly stationed at Marigold's feet, Hagrid offered them tea and a cauldron cake to share. Neville tried cutting the cake into equal slices, but the cake refused to be divided, so the kids opted just to drink the tea. The conversation had been mainly about how their first week of school until Padma reached for a newspaper clipping in front of her.

"I thought Gringotts was supposed to be the most secure place in the country," she said, as she scanned the article. Marigold leaned over and read how there had been a break-in at the bank.

"It is, except fer Hogwarts. But I wouldn't worry too much about that," Hagrid said, looking away from the kids. Catching the shift in his gaze, Marigold eyed his movements carefully. From his skittishness, Marigold got the sense that he knew something that most people wouldn't, but not wanting to ruin the mood, decided not to press for more information.

When Marigold went back home for Rosh Hashanah that Saturday, she had been all too happy to leave the world of Hogwarts behind for the weekend. Aside from updating her family about her what had happened since she had last written them, she mainly focused on socializing with her family and her friends from temple. While she still had to miss Shabbat, her family made up for it as they enjoyed their honey-dipped apples and challah with plenty of songs. After performing _tashlich_, she felt like a burden had been lifted from her shoulders. Her return to Hogwarts was marked by a higher resolved to have a good year, to make sure that nobody, not even Snape, made it a bad one.

After beginning her make-up assignments for Transfiguration and Herbology, Marigold attempted to catch up with the other Hufflepuff students, to mixed success. She still hadn't had much luck talking to Hannah and Megan, much less the boys, with the exception of Justin. Even though they had all made a pack to work on their homework together, it was clear to her that there a few of the students made little effort to talk to the rest of the group unless specifically called upon. Once the group had finished their work and made their way back to their rooms, Marigold opted to remain in the common room, looking through the books to read. Only Justin had remained behind.

"Things aren't going too well?" Marigold asked as she perused the books. As the silence lingered, she turned to look at Justin to see if he had heard her. From the frown on his face, she knew he had.

"It's just that this is all a bit much to get used to. I was supposed to go to Eton, study Politics, and then become an MP. But now… I'm not sure where I fit in."

"It hasn't been easy for me either, but we're just starting out. I'm sure things will get better soon," Marigold said, offering a smile. Justin shrugged as he slumped against the sofa, looking over to the fireplace.

"It seems like everyone likes you. I mean, you're able to talk to the third-years, Gryffindors, Ravenclaws, heck even the Slytherins. No one's really interested in getting to know me, however. Not even my own roommates."

"I may be able to talk to them, but most people aren't really interested in me. Most of them are more interested in the Girl-Who-Lived, because they probably think that talking to someone famous will mean that they can be famous. Having fake friends can be just as lonely as having no friends, sometimes," Marigold said, sighing before plopping down onto the sofa next to him. Taking a deep breath, she looked over at Justin again. "I'm sorry you've been having a rough time so far. But maybe we can change things. I, for one, would love to get to know you more. I'll be your friend, even if no one else is willing to be."

"At least that's one friend I can count on."

"I know you'll make more friends in time. My papa once told me that sometimes you have to make the first move, even if the other person doesn't seem interested, because sometimes people aren't aware of what they might be missing out on until you show them who you are. I'm sure if the others get a chance to see who you are, then they'll be interested in getting to know you."

"Thanks, Marigold. I'm not so sure, but I guess it doesn't hurt to try, right?" Justin said, a smile breaking out on his face. Marigold returned the smile before offering him a hug. "I'll see you tomorrow, then."

The following morning, Marigold and Justin sat together for breakfast and Charms. When Susan had joined them for Charms, Marigold smiled, especially when Draco's group decided to sit next to them. Noticing how Justin seemed to tense up in Draco's presence, she placed a hand on his arm before turning to face the blond.

"Hello, Goyle, Crabbe, Malfoy," Marigold said politely, smiling at the trio. Only Goyle returned the smile, though both Crabbe and Draco nodded at her. "To what do we owe this pleasure?"

"Oh, just our little agreement on the train. I assume you haven't forgotten about it?" Draco asked with a hidden edge in his voice. For a moment, his eyes narrowed, and Marigold's did as well. Her smile, however, hadn't faltered.

"You'd be correct. Though I'm afraid I can't give you a proper answer at right now, considering how little time we've spent together since we arrived."

"I thought you would say something like that, which is why Crabbe, Goyle, and I will be joining you today," Draco said, gesturing toward the others.

"How thoughtful of you - though don't forget that Susan and Justin will also be here," Marigold said, to which he nodded. At Flitwick's prompting, the group silenced themselves and began paying attention to the lecture.

Despite the tense greeting, Draco's presence hadn't derailed the the mood too much, as he was primarily focused on trying to get on Marigold's good side. She still wasn't fond of his personality, but she had to admit that he was a pretty talented wizard, even if he had gotten a bit of head start. Besides, even if something about him rubbed her the wrong way, it would be a foolish move to make an unnecessary enemy out of him. So at the end of Charms, much to his pleasure, she told him, "I think there might be some potential to our being friends, after all."

"That was pretty sneaky, Mari," Susan said with a wink once they were away from the Slytherins.

"I'm just glad he didn't realize it as well. Besides, I kind of like Goyle, and Crabbe hasn't done anything to bother anyone as far as I'm aware. Surely Malfoy can't be all that bad."

Susan nodded as they made their way to History of Magic. Once inside, Marigold went straight for the back, not even realizing that she had lost Susan and Justin in the crowd of people. She sat alone for a moment, but was soon joined by Padma before class started.

"I hope you had a good Rosh Hashanah. I was starting to miss you," Padma said as she took out her notebook.

"Thanks," Marigold said, her voice raising as if asking a question. Aside from her professors, she ha only informed Neville and Susan that she would be gone.

"Anthony Goldstein was also gone," Padma said, answering Marigold's unspoken question. "I had to partner with Granger for Transfiguration and Potions, and while the girl's smart, she also made it pretty hard for me to contribute anything meaningful in those classes."

Moments later, Neville came up and sat down on Marigold's right. Padma offered him a quick nod, while Marigold hugged him. When the pair pulled apart, Binns had already begun his lecture on goblins. If she hadn't gotten notes on the lecture she'd missed, she would have been completely lost. As it stood, she had a hard time following everything he was saying, as he'd buried the main points of the First Goblin War under too many superfluous details. Thankfully, the class was over after forty-five minutes, and she and Neville were able to make their way down to the greenhouses for Herbology.

Herbology was fine, but her mind kept racing as she thought about finally getting to fly at Hogwarts. While she had been able to fly with either her aunt or her cousin Nym, she was never allowed to fly on her own out of fear of her falling and getting hurt. She'd often dreamt of her first time flying alone, soaring through the clouds while her hair flew around her.

Her excitement was only curbed once she'd heard about Neville's fall from his broom the day before. When Seamus Finnigan had started laughing at him, Neville had to hold Marigold back to stop her from doing something rash.

As it turned out, however, the flying class for the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws ended up being rather uneventful. No one's broom went berserk, and thus they all remained at a pretty low height. Only Hermione seemed to have any trouble, and that seemed to be more an issue of nerves than anything else.

In fact, her make-up Astronomy class with the Gryffindors ended up being more eventful, if only because of what happened after the class. Before Marigold could start making her way back to her room, she felt herself being dragged away from the army of Gryffindors retreating inside. For a moment, fear pricked through her as she was pulled further away from people, and she began to struggle. But seconds later, she was released when two familiar redheads stepped in front of her.

"Sorry, didn't mean to frighten you," Fred (at least she thought it was Fred), said.

"We just wanted to offer some help," George added.

Marigold let out a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding when she saw them. She hadn't really gotten a chance to speak to many Gryffindors aside from Neville, but she remembered them from the train.

"You two are friends with Cedric, right?" she asked, hope evident in her voice.

"You'd have a hard time finding someone who isn't friends with Cedric," George said, laughing. "But I suppose we have gotten pretty close to him, yeah."

"And since we know you're in Hufflepuff, we figured you'd need some help getting back to your room," Fred said. At that, Marigold's eyes widened. She hadn't even thought about not being able to make her way back to her room when she had asked Professor Sinistra if she could join the Gryffindor class for that week so she wouldn't have to miss class. But since she had only had the class once before, and the castle was known for its pathways always changing, there was no way she would have been able to make it back on her own.

"But won't you get in trouble if you get caught by Filch?" Marigold asked.

"We'll be fine; we're not amateurs," George said. Marigold watched as Fred reached into his robes and produced a piece of parchment.

"What's that?" Marigold asked, leaning in closer. To her surprise, the paper was blank.

"This, ickle Mari, is perhaps the greatest document ever to be produced by any Hogwarts student: the Marauder's Map," Fred said.

At the sound of the name, Marigold paused, staring up at the boys curiously. It had been a while since she had heard that name, but she remembered stories from her papa about the adventures he and his friends would get up to. When she had asked what had happened to the map, he'd told her that all but one copy was gone, and that when she was older, she would be able to handle the map. But now, a second copy had surfaced, and it was right in front of her.

"Where - how did you get this?" Marigold asked.

"From Filch's office - but aren't you curious about how it works?" George asked with a bemused smile on his face.

"There's a special phrase you have to say," Marigold said, before the question fully registered with her. "You guys figured out how to use the map?"

"Well, the map did provide some help,"Fred said. "Wait, do you already know the phrase?"

When Marigold nodded, Fred handed her the map. After nodding for her to go on, Marigold said, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

All of a sudden, ink appeared all over the parchment. Marigold carefully opened it up, revealing a map of the castle grounds. Most of the students were clustered in their rooms, though a group of students were either walking away from or toward the Astronomy Tower. Even Peeves appeared on the map, flying around near the kitchens.

When she looked up, she saw Fred and George staring down at her, their jaws hanging open. Before either one of them could get a word out, however, Professor Sinistra cleared her voice behind them, signaling that they should return to their dorms.

Despite the fact that she still held the map, the twins escorted her down to the Hufflepuff dorms. Stopping beside the barrels, she started to hand the map back to the twins, but they shook their heads.

"It's probably best if you hold onto it for now," George said. "Besides, Fred and I have been meaning to test ourselves, and this will be a nice test."

With a wave, the twins left her in the otherwise empty corridor. Carefully feeling for the correct barrel, she tapped out the five-beat pattern for the entrance to the common room. The common room was largely empty aside from a few of the older students who were buried in their books, so Marigold went straight for her room. Her eyes, which had grown heavy as she made her way to her room, immediately closed once her head hit her pillow.

Her dreams came easily to her that night. Like in many of her dreams, she found herself walking through a forest with only animals for her companions. Selene was at her side, as she had been since Marigold first got here, but another snake with blood-red eyes was there too. Selene hissed something to her, but for once, Marigold only heard her hissing rather than what she actually said. But it didn't matter, because she had to stay focused - there was treasure to find, and she only had so long to get it.

But before she could find it, Selene suddenly slithered away as a rat appeared. Marigold called out for her to stop, but the other snake stopped her by blocking her path.

"Let her go, foolish girl. The rat is your enemy. He deserves to die," the snake said.

The moment the snake spoke, she knew it was true, but at the same time, she she couldn't help but shake the feeling that something was wrong. As she watched Selene wrap herself around the rat, beginning to squeeze the life out of it, she took out her wand. But before she could do or say anything, the image vanished from her mind.

"Marigold," Leanne started, as she had begun shaking Marigold's shoulders, "if you don't wake up soon, you'll miss breakfast!"

Marigold jolted up to find herself in a blurry version of their bedroom. After putting on her glasses, she looked down to find that she had slept with the Marauder's Map still open underneath her. She quickly started folding it up, hoping that the other girl wouldn't notice, when she stopped as her eyes caught sight of Gryffindor Tower. Inside one of the rooms for the students was a single name that definitely shouldn't have been there: Peter Pettigrew.

* * *

The chapter title is from "Karma Chameleon" by Culture Club. The meaning isn't as significant as it was for the last chapter, but not all of them will be.

Beatrice is from that one game that came out last year. I actually stopped playing early on, so I don't know what her character is actually like. Heidi is also from a game (that I didn't play), but I imagine she wasn't given much of a personality since that game was about quidditch.

I'm not going to go into all of the specifics right now, but the classes, are a bit different than how they operate in the books (mainly because a lot of the teachers have rather impossible schedules in the books and it bothered me a lot). So with the exception of Astronomy, all of the houses share their classes with at least one other class. HoM and DADA, as well as electives later on, are shared between all of the houses for each year that it's taken. As for Astronomy, the first, second, and third years of each class share the first class, while the fourth and fifth years share the second class (So Hufflepuffs have the class Mondays, Gryffindors have it Wednesdays, etc.). The NEWT students all share a class together on Friday night. Expect to see more of Sinistra later.

Marigold will not be on the Hufflepuff quidditch team for her first year, so I'm sorry if you were looking forward to that.

Um, that's all I can think of for right now. If you have any questions or comments, let me know!


	3. Chapter 3: Found You Hiding

Marigold clutched the map tighter as she stared at that name. Peter Pettigrew. Why was his name on the map? He was dead, wasn't he? That's what everyone had said, and yet…. They never did find his body. And the rat in her dream - Pettigrew's animagus form had been a rat according to her Papa. It could have been a sign that he was still around! But no, if he was alive, surely someone would have noticed a 30-year-old man roaming around Gryffindor tower.

Maybe he was a ghost. If he was truly dead, it wouldn't be surprising if he had any regrets and chose to stay given how young he would have been. In fact, Marigold was surprised that the war did not result in more ghosts. Then again, maybe the war did create a lot of ghosts, and Marigold didn't know of their existence, just like she hadn't known about Pettigrew's ghost.

At the same time, why would she even know about the ghosts of people she had no connection to? Unlike a lot of the witches and wizards who lost their lives during the war, Pettigrew had a very strong connection to her family - he was close friends with both of her fathers, after all. If he was a ghost, why had he never bothered to visit her family? Surely he would have tried searching for her papa, right? Unless - unless he wasn't able to.

Frowning, Marigold started to fold up the map, but was interrupted as Leanne thrusted her head down in front of the map. She had been so surprised to see Pettigrew's name on the map that she had failed to sense that anyone else was in the room. She was going to have to be more careful in the future.

"Whoa, cool! Where'd you get that map? And can I borrow it sometime?" Leanne asked. Marigold sighed - while she probably knew more about this map than anyone in this school, it still technically wasn't hers to loan out.

"Sorry, but I'm not sure that the people I got this from would want anyone else to know about it," Marigold said, since it wasn't technically a lie. Leanne nodded and left the room so that Marigold could change before breakfast. Once she was in fresh robes and her messy hair forced into a loose braid, the two girls walked to the Great Hall.

Since the Gryffindors were the main students remaining in the hall due to their astronomy classes the night before, both Leanne and Marigold joined them at their table. Leanne immediately sat with the first-year students, but Marigold sought out the twins, who were sitting near Lee Jordan and three girls that Marigold didn't know. Feeling inside her robes, her fingers closed around the map.

"Thanks for letting me borrow this," she said as she started to hand the map to George. But George just shook his head and waved his hand in refusal.

"We don't mind if you want to hold onto it," he said, smiling at her. Before she could get out another word, he added, "The three of us can share it - we'll just come to you if we need to borrow it again. Besides, I have a feeling you have more of a right to it than we do."

Marigold kept his gaze a moment longer. When she was unable to find any sign of apprehension on his face, she finally pocketed the map again. "Thanks. I think that sounds like a good plan."

"No problem. Hey, why don't you join us for breakfast?"

Glancing between the twins and Neville, who was sitting at the end of the table closest to the entrance, Marigold opened her mouth, beginning to decline the invitation. She was pretty sure that she saw Pettigrew's name in his room, as he was listed next to Ron Weasley, another Gryffindor first year. But she also wanted to learn more about the twins, and she would be spending the rest of the morning with Neville, anyway.

"Alright. Thanks," Marigold said as she took a seat beside him. Over the course of the meal, she met the majority of the Gryffindor quidditch team, with the exception of their captain, Oliver Wood, and their new Seeker, a second-year named Cormac McLaggen. Alicia Spinnet and Katie Bell seemed nice enough, but it was Angelina Johnson who impressed her the most due to her quick wit.

"I'm not sure how you met the twins, but you always have to be on your toes when around them. These two are always up to something, no matter what they claim," Angelina warned her when the twins were engrossed in some tale with Lee Jordan.

"You make us out to be two deviants!" Fred said, perking up when Angelina had mentioned them.

"That's because you two are deviants," Lee said, grinning.

Before she knew it, Marigold was laughing along with the rest of the Gryffindors by the time she had to leave for class. For once, she was actually one of the first students to arrive for Binns' class. When Neville arrived a few minutes after her, she immediately turned toward him.

"Nev, is there a ghost living in your room?" she asked, keeping her voice low in case anyone tried listening in on them.

"Not that I know of. Why? Mari, why are you frowning?" Neville asked, his voice growing more frantic as he spoke. Marigold tried masking her face, but her frown remained in place.

"Because I found something I wasn't expecting to find. And if there isn't a ghost in your room, that means we might have a huge problem on our hands," Marigold said.

Taking out a piece of parchment, she began writing a letter to her papa about her recent discovery. If there was anyone that would know what to do with this situation, it would be him.

"Well, aren't you focused this morning," Padma said as she slid next to her. "This is probably the most writing I've seen you doing in this class, and class hasn't even started yet."

Marigold folded the letter carefully as she took out her supplies for class. For the rest of the morning, she tried her best to focus on Binns' lecture, but both Padma and Neville noticed the glances she kept giving the letter.

"Maybe you should take care of whatever's going on. I don't think Binns would even notice if you slipped out of class," Padma whispered. Neville paled at the comment, but Marigold shook her head, unfazed by the suggestion to cut class.

"It's not that easy, unfortunately. I'm not even sure what to make of this information, much less what's going to happen because of it if I'm right," Marigold said. Both of her friends gave her questioning glances, but she brushed them off. Scanning the classroom, she suddenly realized that any of the students could have been potentially eavesdropping on their conversation. She didn't need anyone running to their parents about something that she couldn't even confirm yet. "Meet me out in the courtyard for lunch. I'll tell you then."

Knowing that they would have to be content with that, the trio attempted to return their attention to their professor. The anticipation of being able to tell her friends about her discovery made both History of Magic and DADA seem to drag on for hours. Her head was drooping and she could barely keep her eyes open by the time they were finally released for lunch, despite how much her stomach tingled with nerves.

After grabbing food from the Great Hall, Marigold went to the courtyard, searching for an unoccupied spot that was far enough away from the few students outside.

She sat down on a small brick wall underneath a tall tree that was in the far corner of the courtyard. After scanning the courtyard once more and scanning for potential eavesdroppers she pulled out the Marauder's Map and whispered the opening incantation.

Once the map had revealed itself, her eyes darted immediately for Gryffindor Tower. Once again, the tower was mostly empty, and she could clearly make out the name "Peter Pettigrew." Now what she needed was for someone else to confirm this discover.

Her friends finally arrived just as Marigold was finishing the last bites of her masala. Though the two looked surprised to see her off in a secluded corner, she was grateful that neither had announced their position.

"So, what is it that you wanted to talk about?" Padma asked.

"This," Marigold said as she held up the Marauder's Map in front of them. Both of her friends gawked at the map before looking at her. In response to their unasked question, she quickly added, "I got this yesterday, but it's not the map itself that I wanted to talk about."

"I would ask to borrow it, but I don't even want to risk losing something like that," Neville whispered.

"This map is really cool, but if that's not what you want to talk about, why are you showing us this?" Padma asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Because there's something on this map that is even more surprising. Neville, can you see your room?" At her question, Padma and Neville's faces knotted in confusion, but Neville nodded. "Good. Now could you take a close look at your room?"

"Sure, but I don't get why-" Neville started to say as he leaned in. Seconds later, his hands began shaking and eyes widened as he jerked his head up to meet Marigold's eyes. "How is that possible? I thought… So that's why you asked me about there being a ghost?"

"Would someone tell me what's going on? What's so serious that it has two looking like that?" Padma asked. At the mention of the word "serious," Marigold's eyes widened.

"Padma, how much do you know about what happened the day that Voldemort fell?" Marigold asked. Before answering, Padma winced at the name. Marigold had noticed that the students around her never seemed to mention Voldemort's name when talking about him. She had figured that it was from the way the papers referred to him, as many students she encountered would have been too young to really remember anything from the war. But she didn't realize that many of the younger students seemed to be just as terrified of him as the older students were.

"Well, there's the fact that he killed your parents and he died while trying to kill you. There's also the fact that the reason why your parents were discovered was due to being betrayed by one of the Blacks," Padma said. Neville nodded, though Neville and Marigold both knew that the public version of what happened - the version of the story Padma knew - was slightly inaccurate. Though her papa had figured it out before Dumbledore told them, it had been Marigold's mother, Lily, who had truly defeated Voldemort.

"Yes. The friend who betrayed them was Sirius Black, someone who had been like a brother to my birth father, and a second son to my grandmother. After selling out my family, he then proceeded to kill several muggles and a wizard named Peter Pettigrew. Or so we thought."

"Peter Pettigrew - isn't that the one who was blown apart with only a finger remaining? I always wondered how that would even be possible," Padma said, her eyes growing glossy for a second. Looking back at the map, her eyes narrowed as a frown spread across her face. "Wait, I see that name in Gryffindor Tower. Is he a ghost?" Padma asked.

"If he is, I've never seen him, and it says that he's in my room," Neville said as he shook his head.

"Maybe the map is wrong?" Even as she asked the question, she looked doubtful.

"While this map might not be completely accurate considering how often Hogwarts changes, wouldn't it be weird for it to make a mistake about this? Peter Pettigrew hasn't been at Hogwarts for years, so why would he be the only person not at Hogwarts anymore to show up?" Marigold asked. The question had been running through her mind for the last few hours, but without her ghost theory, no plausible answers came to her.

"Well, he can't just be sitting around Gryffindor Tower - someone definitely would have noticed a strange man who happened to be standing in their room. So how is it possible that he's really in the room without anyone noticing him?" Padma asked.

"That's the same question I've been trying to answer all morning," Marigold replied. Marigold started to fold the map up, but stopped when she heard rustling behind her. Turning around, she saw a squirrel scurrying up the tree at full force. There might have been a way that Pettigrew would escape being found after all.

The moment class was over Marigold went straight to the library. Taking out her letter, she quickly added her new theory about Pettigrew, wanting to make sure that none of the information she had discovered went unmentioned. Once satisfied with the letter, she dashed off to the owlry, hoping that there was still a decent school owl left to send out her letter.

The rest of the evening, Marigold did her best to get through her homework and put off thoughts of what response she might get. When she finally got a response the next morning, she didn't waste a second in opening the letter.

_Dear Marigold,_

_How you managed to get ahold of the Marauder's Map so quickly after starting Hogwarts is beyond me, but nonetheless, it seems quite fortunate that you did. In all my years of using the map, I have never once known it to falsely report anything, nor do I have reason to suspect that it might have now. I must admit that the other Marauders and I had previously underestimated Peter's skill and intellect, but if he has managed to stay undetected for all these years, I urge you and your friends to proceed with extreme caution when it comes to him. If you haven't already, you should talk to Professor McGonagall and tell her everything that you know about this matter. _

_If there are any doubts as to whether or not the rat that you found is in fact Pettigrew, keep in mind that he has dark brown fur with a few white spots near his head, a very long tail that alters between two shades of pink, and as of now, a missing finger. _

_I hope you never forget how proud everyone is of you. I've enclosed letters from the rest of the family in the envelope, so be sure to read those as well. _

_With love, _

_Papa_

Despite having DADA and History of Magic back-to-back, the time sped by faster than she realized. By the time Transfiguration had ended, it felt like it had only been a few minutes since she had read the letter.

"Professor McGonagall, I have something to tell you," Marigold said, stopping in front of the professor's desk as the rest of the students filed out of the classroom. McGonagall's expression remained stern as usual, but she nodded at Marigold. "I saw something yesterday, and I think you're the best person to deal with this situation, both as the Head of Gryffindor house, and as the Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts."

McGonagall notched an eyebrow as Marigold pulled out the Marauder's Map and opened it up on the desk. She remained silent until Marigold pointed to a name listed in one of the rooms in Gryffindor Tower. For a second, McGonagall's eyes narrowed as she examined Marigold, but she quickly let out a sigh as she returned her gaze to the map. "Miss Potter-Lupin, I'm sure you've heard by now about what happened to Peter Pettigrew. I must admit that I'm surprised he's listed here, but it's either a mistake, or it's just showing his ghost is in the castle."

"That's what I believed at first too, Professor, but when I asked Neville about it, he told me that's he's never seen a ghost in his room before. And the map doesn't make mistakes. I believe that Ron Weasley has been unknowingly keeping Pettigrew as a pet rat."

"All animagi are required to be placed on a register. If Peter Pettigrew were an animagus, we would have known about it," McGonagall said, her tone wavering just slightly. "But I'd be lying if I told you I didn't at least highly suspect that Pettigrew and his friends had been attempting to become animagi. They might have been highly skilled wizards, but subtly was not something they possessed."

"So you believe me?" Marigold asked, trying not to let her excitement explode out of her. While she expected McGonagall to believe her, she had thought that it might have taken more convincing on her end.

"Well, I believe that this is something that should urgently be looked into," McGonagall said as she took out a piece of parchment and began writing. When she finished, she rolled up the parchment and handed it over to Marigold. "Please get this to Mr. Weasley as soon as you can. If you are able, I'd recommend coming to my office at the same time. Thank you for letting me know about this, Miss Potter-Lupin."

Marigold nodded before leaving Professor McGonagall and went straight to the Great Hall. It didn't take long to find Ron Weasley, especially since his brothers were hovering around him. Marigold couldn't tell what the twins had been up to before she came up to them, but they fell back as soon as she approached the trio. The twins began to laugh as Ron's face soured upon seeing the letter, but she quickly informed all of them that it was not a detention, which seemed to catch all of their attention.

"So you know what this is all about, then, Mari?" George asked, the twinge of curiosity strong in his voice.

"Yes, and it's quite delicate. The last thing that we need is for the wrong person to hear about this," Marigold said, only feeling a little remorse at choosing to keep the information about Pettigrew from the twins. While she was sure that they were well-intentioned, she couldn't be sure that other Gryffindor students weren't eavesdropping on her, desperate to learn anything they could about the "Girl-Who-Lived." Even though the school year had started weeks ago, she still constantly felt the stares from the other students who weren't in her house or year.

The twins nodded their understanding before she smiled at them. She hadn't expected to get closer to any of the older students when she first started, but Fred, George, Cedric, Beatrice and Heidi had been a lot more understanding of her than some of her classmates. The Hufflepuffs made it a point not to give her special after the first few days of class, but this courtesy was not extended from the other houses. Gryffindors, Ravenclaws, and even younger Slytherins seemed eager to approach her, pestering her with questions as if they were paparazzi for _Witch Weekly_. The only real solace she found was when Malfoy would temporarily deploy Crabbe and Goyle to act as her makeshift bodyguards, something she both appreciated and felt guilt about.

When Marigold walked into Professor McGonagall's office, Ron turned around, surprised to see her. In the chair next to him sat a cage containing a rat. As she took her seat, Professor McGonagall began securing all of the possible exits in the room. Ron glanced at her suspiciously, but Marigold looked down at the rat beside her. His eyes looked like they were bulging right out of their sockets. Was the rat really able to comprehend what was going on around him - was this really Pettigrew? From what she could tell, his description matched the one she had read from her papa.

The moment Professor McGonagall took out her wand, the rat went into a frenzy. Ron begged the professor to put it away, but instead, a white light encased the rat, paralyzing him. "Mr. Weasley, please take your rat of the cage and place him on the chair."

Ron looked horrified, but he obeyed. Giving him a curt nod, Professor McGonagall turned her attention to Marigold. "Miss Potter-Lupin?"

"I think it's him," Marigold said after examining the rat once more. Seconds later, the rat began to transform right in front of her, growing larger and larger. Within seconds, a small, grubby-looking man with thinning hair and a pointed nose was sitting were the rat had once been. Ron let out a scream as he jumped out of his chair, knocking it over in the process. Even McGonagall let out a sharp gasp before breathing a slur of expletives. Though Marigold remained silent, she felt as if the floor had been removed from beneath her.

She had been hoping that maybe she had been wrong, that she had simply imagined the name when she was tired, or that the map really had been wrong. But there he was, the man so many people had believed to have been killed by Sirius Black, still intact besides a missing finger. He was alive, and for a decade, no one had known about it. Maybe his disappearance could have been justified for a while, but the moment Sirius Black was arrested, what reason did Pettigrew have to remain as a rat? He could have returned at any point, could have explained that he feared that Sirius would seek him out, and no one would have thought any less of him. But a decade…

Before Marigold could think further on the matter, her attention was diverted as green flames came to life in the room's fireplace. A couple of seconds, a grizzled-looking man stepped out of the flames, cursing.

"I always thought this case was closed too early," the man said, bitterness clear in each word he spoke. "I don't know how you discovered him, Minerva, but you've put dozens of snobs over at the Ministry to shame."

"The only thing I've done is contact you, Alastor. If it were not for Miss Potter-Lupin, I never would have found out about Pettigrew." At Professor McGonagall's words, the man suddenly turned his attention to Marigold.

"Potter-Lupin, is it? At least there's some hope for the future. If you ever find out anything else of note that your professors can't take care of, don't hesitate to reach out to old "Mad-Eye" Moody here," Moody said, gesturing to himself before turning his attention back to Peter Pettigrew. "Looks like your little hiding act is up. I'm not sure what secrets you've been hiding, but trust me when I saw that I can't wait to uncover them."

Just like that Alastor Moody and Peter Pettigrew were gone. Ron was trapped in a state of shock, while Professor McGonagall looked deep in thought. Marigold, still trying to process everything that just happened, remained in place wearing a neutral expression. She was not sure what was going to happen next, but she knew that this issue was far from settled.


End file.
